Now people living in the area are angered because the EFA has done so without planning permission.

Tom Curtin of Caversham Residents Against Inappropriate Development (CRAID), which was formed to fight the building of the school in Upper Warren Avenue, was one of the first to object to the arrival of the gates.

He told getreading: “I work in planning. What is happening here is that the Government is flouting planning laws.”

Mr Curtin explained that planning permission is needed for putting up new gates taller than two metres.

The previous gates at the site were, he said, “normal house gates, about four to five feet high”.

He said CRAID had called on Reading Borough Council to take enforcement action.

It had also written to Reading East MP Rob Wilson, Mapledurham councillor Isobel Ballsdon, secretary of state for education Nicky Morgan and local government secretary Eric Pickles.

Mr Curtin said: “The EFA is a Government agency. You can’t go round flouting planning laws like this. It is illegal.

“We have a planning system.”

The EFA split the community in Caversham when it purchased the High Ridge site for the new free school.

The Heights Free School Trust has been campaigning to build a much-needed new primary school in Caversham and had enthusiastic support from the community until the EFA picked the school site.

Although many people are still backing the school, a powerful lobby is building among people living in Upper Warren Avenue and surrounding roads objecting to the plan – which has yet to seek planning approval.

Although not responsible for choosing the site – or putting up the gates – Dan Pagella of The Heights Free School Trust has sent out an apology to a number of objectors.

He wrote in an email referring to the installation of the gates by the EFA: “In short their contractor doesn’t appear to have fulfilled the brief, which was to secure the site, not flout planning law in an inconsiderate manner.

“I have asked for this issue to be addressed and await a response from the EFA which I will pass on.

“In the interim I can only apologise for the inconvenience it has caused.”

Council spokeswoman Anna Fowler said: “A number of complaints have been received from local residents concerning the erection of a gate to the property. Officers are currently looking into these concerns and will determine if planning permission is needed. The outcome of our investigations will be reported initially to the EFA who own the property.”

Department for Education spokeswoman Emma Heseltine said: “The existing gate was replaced in response to local residents’ concerns about the security and condition of the site.